Life employment ... dies.

[moyashi]

With the economy dropping below the death mark of 10,000 yen stock market. [risutora] Pink slips scare employees.

Life long employment is no longer a sacred cow. Many loose their jobs daily.

Why?

What does a 50 year man do now? He no longer brings home his 50 year old based salary and can't find a job that offers a similar amount.

Even JR the major Japanese Railway has started to put in automatic ticket gates instead of the friendly smiles you used to see.

With the burst of the bubble economy Japan is facing a crisis that hit the States back in the 80's.

What is going to happen?

[bartbeanie]

is it possible to find employment in retail such as a supermarket or restaurant?

[thomas]

From what I've understood it's quite easy to find 'arubaito' at konbinis (convenient stores) for instance. A lot of students and part-timers work there, especially during night shifts.

[samuraitora]

That is a good question...take into consideration the impact this would have.

A 50 year old man making, let's say, 3 million yen a year then has to take a 100,000 to 500,000 yen a year job...awful...

These are just figures but you get the point...we had a lot of suicides and things of that nature in the 80's because of the economy and they are on the rise again because of the economy.

I am 27 and was devistated when I lost my job due to cut backs and I was only there for about 2 years...I couldn't imagine loosing a job that I had for 30 years or more...

[moyashi]

That's the point of the whole struggle here.

You work for and trust your employers to not piss on you. You believe in the sytems. Work beyond the call of duty without over time pay. And then with only 5-10 years more you get axed.

You got kids in school planning on going to Uni.
You got a 50 year mortgage.
You got a wife that doesn't work.

You got so many things that need money. So, even if you work part-time you get stuck in the rut.

Now, even if you're willing to take the pay cut who will hire an old jiji when they can have a peachy peachy perky perky girlie?

catch 22

[samuraitora]

too true

[deborah gormley]

@ bartbeanie Welcome to the forum.

thats the sad part, but some people do have a happy ending,, not many I confess but some, as for the unfortinate 50 year old who cant find another job,cant keep the payments up on mortgages ect; why cant the goverment help???? even pay the mortgage ??? the interest of the mortgage would be a start!!

the head men in the goverment should sit down and discuss ways of helping the jiji and ways of claiming the money back from secure jobs, such as school industry/catering industry/ even techo industry, and allowing the jiji to be secure in life as he knows it(home ). as long as the home is secure all else will follow.

[moyashi]

@nice catch debs, I didn't even notice bartbeanie was a new user
Sorry about that fella/gal. I didn't mean to miss you.

@ jiji
But the governmental policy markers are jiji themselves. But they are so far from reality that it's hard for them to think about the common people.

[samuraitora]

hajimemashite Bartbeaniesan.

Not to start another string, but do the Japanese have an unemployment system. Here we have unemployment. It works if you didn't get fired or quit...you have to have been layed of and have worked at least 26 weeks out of the past 52. If you qualify for unemployment, they will give you a percentage of your wages over the past 52 weeks (if you have had more than on salary range, they give you a percentage of the average). This lasts for 26 weeks. Then your S.O.L.

That is the extent of what the government does here...you can get grants and loans and things of that nature if you qualify. The government looked at paying morgages and things, until they saw that people were laying of there coworkers (that they liked) so they could have a free ride.

some people suck...LOL

[moyashi]

Yes, there is.

It's called Kouyohoken. It's pretty similar to what you described. It's part of a package that bundles unemployment insurance, pension, and national health insurance together.

The percentage is about 80% or so. It last for about 90 days. You get it within a month if you're fired or if your contract finishes. Otherwise it's a 3 month wait. Pregnant mothers get ******.

Many Gaijin don't have this option since most Eikaiwa schools would prefer screwing their staff and save themselves a bundle by breaking the law. The law is too lazy to check all the schools let alone 1 I bet.

I pushed my old company into giving me national insurance and then later at the end of my contract used the unemployment office to put pressure on my old company to pay for my past dues on unemployment insurance that they felt I wouldn't want.

There is no discrimiation beyond pregnanat women and the fact that you must be employed full time or up to a certain amount of hours that are close to being full time working hours.

One Eikaiwa school told me when I went for an interview that "You don't want national health insurance, a pension, and unemployment insurance" ... I basically called the guy a dumb ****. I didn't get the job needless to say since I knew too much about the lawful and rightful system that they hide from gaijin.

errrrrr ...

[samuraitora]

WOW...gaijin get screwed a lot don't they.

Here, unemployement has no insurance or anything like that. They send you a check every week and that is all you get. The percentage ranges from 60% to 80% and like I said, for about 26 weeks.

You used to have to go down to the Unemployment Office for everything regarding your claim, now almost everything is done over the phone. MUCH better.

Why do they discriminate against Pregnant women???

[moyashi]

Because women are not regular employees, and they are most hired to marry off to employees.

Women working is a strange situation in Japan since they aren't really taken seriously ... there's a thread that goes more detail about this.

I feel sorry for women in a work place.

[samuraitora]

where is the thread moyashisensei?

That is too strange that they are hired and then married off to employees...if you are a woman and want to get married...just get a job...LOL

[moyashi]

ugh, I don't know. It was a while back that's for sure during the beginning of summer or sometime around then.

Yeah, actually some women use the work place to find perspective husbands. Hehe, normally those that are going up.

lol ... get a job to get married so that you don't need a job. Sounds like a [mujun] a contradiction, but this is Japan eh!

[samuraitora]

I was talking to my wife, she said a lot of girls here do that in college. She said they are going for their "MRS" degree.

[moyashi]

lol ... I was like that in college too but reality hit me pretty hard ... I woke up and realized I was in Japan 8 years later ... talk about Rip VanWrinkle.